Pakistani forces kill 21 Taliban

Islamabad, June 2 (IANS) Pakistani forces have killed 21 Taliban in their operations against the militants in the country’s restive northwest, the military said Tuesday as the security forces’ action entered its 39th day. “In the last 24 hours (to Tuesday afternoon), 21 miscreants-terrorists were killed and 18 apprehended in various areas of Swat,” an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said.

Three soldiers had died and six were injured during this period, the statement added.

Detailing the conduct of the military operations in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the statement said the security forces had cleared the Jangle Tekri area up to Sara China in Charbagh, which lies close to Swat’s main town of Mingora.

“Due to stiff resistance, one security forces’ personnel embraced shahadat (died) while four were injured,” the statement said.

With normalcy returning to Mingora, “efforts are in hand for restoration of services in the city”, ISPR said.

In Peochar, once the stronghold of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, security forces carried out search and destroy operations in Mandi Banda area and recovered some arms and ammunition, the statement added.

The army has so far distributed 778 tonnes of relief and food items among the displaced people of Swat, the statement said.

To go by the military’s figures, close to 1,300 militants have so far been killed in the security forces’ operations. There is, however, no independent confirmation of this as the media has been barred from the battle zone.

When the operations began April 26, the military claimed it was up against some 4,000-5,000 Taliban fighters. It now says that half of these have shaved off their beards and escaped by intermingling with the civilians who are fleeing the fighting.

The security forces were ordered into action after the Taliban reneged on a controversial peace deal with the NWFP government and instead moved south from their Swat headquarters to occupy Buner, which is just 100 km from Islamabad.

The operations had begun in Lower Dir, the home district of Taliban-backed radical cleric Sufi Mohammad who had brokered the peace deal and who is Maulana Fazlullah’s father-in-law, and later spread to Buner and Swat.

Under the peace deal, the Taliban were to lay down arms in return for Sharia laws in Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and four other districts of the NWFP that are collectively known as the Malakand division.

The military operations have triggered the biggest and fastest civilian exodus in recent times.

The social welfare department of NWFP has registered some 1.4 million refugees at its camps but the UN estimates the number could be as high as 3 million as many could be staying with relatives and friends.

The UN estimates that close to $543 million would be required for the relief and rehabilitation of the refugees.